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Are We Recreating the Third Reich?-Posted on Canada Free Press-By John W. Whitehead (Bio and Archives)-On May 5, 2014:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”—Martin Niemoller

Despite what some may think, the Constitution is no magical incantation against government wrongdoing. Indeed, it’s only as effective as those who abide by it. However, without courts willing to uphold the Constitution’s provisions when government officials disregard it and a citizenry knowledgeable enough to be outraged when those provisions are undermined, it provides little to no protection against SWAT team raids, domestic surveillance, police shootings of unarmed citizens, indefinite detentions, and the like.

Unfortunately, the courts and the police have meshed in their thinking to such an extent that anything goes when it’s done in the name of national security, crime fighting and terrorism. Consequently, America no longer operates under a system of justice characterized by due process, an assumption of innocence, probable cause and clear prohibitions on government overreach and police abuse. Instead, our courts of justice have been transformed into courts of order, advocating for the government’s interests, rather than championing the rights of the citizenry, as enshrined in the Constitution.

Just recently, for example, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in U.S. v. Westhoven that driving too carefully, with a rigid posture, taking a scenic route, and having acne are sufficient reasons for a police officer to suspect you of doing something illegal, detain you, search your car, and arrest you—even if you’ve done nothing illegal to warrant the stop in the first place.

In that same vein, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in a 5-4 ruling in Navarette v. California that police officers can, under the guise of “reasonable suspicion,” stop cars and question drivers based solely on anonymous tips, no matter how dubious, and whether or not they themselves witnessed any troubling behavior.

And then you have the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Hedges v. Obama, a legal challenge to the indefinite detention provision of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA), thereby affirming that the President and the U.S. military can arrest and indefinitely detain individuals, including American citizens, based on a suspicion that they might be associated with or aiding terrorist organizations.

All three cases reflect a mindset in which the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, once the map by which we navigated sometimes hostile terrain, has been unceremoniously booted out of the runaway car that is our government, driven over and left for road kill on the side of the road. All that can be seen in the rear view mirror are the tire marks on its ragged frame.

What we are dealing with, as I document in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, is a run-away government hyped up on its own power, whose policies are dictated more by paranoia than need. Making matters worse, “we the people” have become so gullible, so easily distracted, and so out-of-touch that we are ignoring the warning signs all around us and failing to demand that government officials of all stripes—the White House, Congress, the courts, the military, law enforcement, the endless parade of bureaucrats, etc.—respect our rights and abide by the rule of law.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the NDAA indefinite detention case—which challenged whether the government can lawfully lock up American citizens who might be deemed extremists or terrorists (the government likes to use these words interchangeably) for criticizing the government—is one such warning sign that we would do well to heed.

The building blocks are already in place for such an eventuality: the surveillance networks, fusion centers and government contractors already monitor what is being said by whom; government databases track who poses a potential threat to the government’s power; the militarized police, working in conjunction with federal agencies, coordinate with the federal government when it’s time to round up the troublemakers; the courts sanction the government’s methods, no matter how unlawful; and the detention facilities, whether private prisons or FEMA internment camps, to lock up the troublemakers.

For those who can read the writing on the wall, it’s all starting to make sense: the military drills carried out in major American cities, the VIPR inspections at train depots and bus stations, the SWAT team raids on unsuspecting homeowners, the Black Hawk helicopters patrolling American skies, the massive ammunition purchases by various federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education, the IRS and the Social Security Administration.

Viewed in conjunction with the government’s increasing use of involuntary commitment laws to declare individuals mentally ill and lock them up in psychiatric wards for extended periods of time, the NDAA’s provision allowing the military to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone, including American citizens, only codifies this unraveling of our constitutional framework.

Throw in the profit-driven corporate incentive to jail Americans in private prisons, as well as the criminalizing of such relatively innocent activities as holding Bible studies in one’s home or sharing unpasteurized goat cheese with members of one’s community, and it becomes clear that “we the people” have become enemies of the state. Thus, it’s no longer a question of whether the government will lock up Americans for First Amendment activity but when. (It’s particularly telling that the government’s lawyers, when pressed for an assurance that those exercising their First Amendment rights in order to criticize the government would not be targeted under the NDAA, refused to provide one.)

History shows that the U.S. government is not averse to locking up its own citizens for its own purposes. One need only go back to the 1940s, when the federal government proclaimed that Japanese-Americans, labeled potential dissidents, could be put in concentration (a.k.a. internment) camps based only upon their ethnic origin, to see the lengths the federal government will go to in order to maintain “order” in the homeland. The U.S. Supreme Court validated the detention program in Korematsu v. US (1944), concluding that the government’s need to ensure the safety of the country trumped personal liberties. That decision has never been overturned.

In fact, the creation of detention camps domestically has long been part of the government’s budget and operations, falling under the jurisdiction of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA’s murky history dates back to the 1970s, when President Carter created it by way of an executive order merging many of the government’s disaster relief agencies into one large agency. During the 1980s, however, reports began to surface of secret military-type training exercises carried out by FEMA and the Department of Defense. Code named Rex-84, 34 federal agencies, including the CIA and the Secret Service, were trained on how to deal with domestic civil unrest.

FEMA’s role in creating top-secret American internment camps is well-documented. But be careful who you share this information with: it turns out that voicing concerns about the existence of FEMA detention camps is among the growing list of opinions and activities which may make a federal agent or government official think you’re an extremist (a.k.a. terrorist), or sympathetic to terrorist activities, and thus qualify you for indefinite detention under the NDAA. Also included in that list of “dangerous” viewpoints are advocating states’ rights, believing the state to be unnecessary or undesirable, “conspiracy theorizing,” concern about alleged FEMA camps, opposition to war, organizing for “economic justice,” frustration with “mainstream ideologies,” opposition to abortion, opposition to globalization, and ammunition stockpiling.

Now if you’re going to have internment camps on American soil, someone has to build them. Thus, in 2006, it was announced that Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, had been awarded a $385 million contract to build American detention facilities. Although the government and Halliburton were not forthcoming about where or when these domestic detention centers would be built, they rationalized the need for them in case of “an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs” in the event of other emergencies such as “natural disasters.”

Of course, these detention camps will have to be used for anyone viewed as a threat to the government, and that includes political dissidents. So it’s no coincidence that the U.S. government has, since the 1980s, acquired and maintained, without warrant or court order, a database of names and information on Americans considered to be threats to the nation. As Salon reports, this database, reportedly dubbed “Main Core,” is to be used by the Army and FEMA in times of national emergency or under martial law to locate and round up Americans seen as threats to national security. As of 2008, there were some 8 million Americans in the Main Core database.

Fast forward to 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released two reports, one on “Rightwing Extremism,” which broadly defines rightwing extremists as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely,” and one on “Leftwing Extremism,” which labeled environmental and animal rights activist groups as extremists. Both reports use the words terrorist and extremist interchangeably. That same year, the DHS launched Operation Vigilant Eagle, which calls for surveillance of military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, characterizing them as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats because they may be “disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war.”

These reports indicate that for the government, so-called extremism is not a partisan matter. Anyone seen as opposing the government—whether they’re Left, Right or somewhere in between—is a target, which brings us back, full circle, to where we started, with the NDAA’s indefinite detention provision, whose language is so broad and vague as to implicate anyone critical of the government.

Unfortunately, we seem to be coming full circle on many fronts. Consider that a decade ago we were debating whether non-citizens—for example, so-called enemy combatants being held at Guantanamo Bay and Muslim-Americans rounded up in the wake of 9/11—were entitled to protections under the Constitution, specifically as they relate to indefinite detention. Americans weren’t overly concerned about the rights of non-citizens then, and now we’re the ones in the unenviable position of being targeted for indefinite detention by our own government.

Similarly, most Americans weren’t unduly concerned when the U.S. Supreme Court gave Arizona police officers the green light to stop, search and question anyone—ostensibly those fitting a particular racial profile—they suspect might be an illegal immigrant. Two years later, the cops have carte blanche authority to stop any individual, citizen and non-citizen alike, they suspect might be doing something illegal (mind you, in this age of overcriminalization, that could be anything from feeding the birds to growing exotic orchids).

Likewise, you still have a sizeable portion of the population today unconcerned about the government’s practice of spying on Americans, having been brainwashed into believing that if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. It will only be a matter of time before they learn the hard way that in a police state, it doesn’t matter who you are or how righteous you claim to be—eventually, you will be lumped in with everyone else and everything you do will be “wrong” and suspect.

Martin Niemoller learned that particular lesson the hard way. A German military officer turned theologian, Niemoller was an early supporter of Hitler’s rise to power. It was only when Hitler threatened to attack the churches that Niemoller openly opposed the regime. For his efforts, Neimoller was arrested, charged with activities against the government, fined, detained, and eventually interned in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945.

As Niemoller reportedly replied when asked by his cellmate why he ever supported the Nazi party:

I find myself wondering about that too. I wonder about it as much as I regret it. Still, it is true that Hitler betrayed me… Hitler promised me on his word of honor, to protect the Church, and not to issue any anti-Church laws. He also agreed not to allow pogroms against the Jews… Hitler’s assurance satisfied me at the time…I am paying for that mistake now; and not me alone, but thousands of other persons like me.

(May 4, 2014) — NOTE:This may be one of the most important articles we have written in the last 10 years of writing our weekly column.

“The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left (Progressives) can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.” Thomas Sowell, conservative columnist, author

The Planned Liberal-Driven (Progressive) Destruction of American Capitalism and Freedom

To read the story of the Roman Republic turned Empire is to read the general history of mankind in a kaleidoscope of greed, ambition and the lust for power, wealth and political influence at the expense of the masses. All of Roman history was well-known to the Founding Fathers and they were determined to set up a system of government containing several checks and balances to preclude the repeat of the sordid Roman tragedy. Within the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution, the framers thought they had found that delicate balance between self-government and the weaknesses and avarice of man.

Unfortunately, in their attempts to find that perfect balance, they were tripped up by three things they could not control within those two documents. The first was the ability of a clever and devious mind to get around any obstacle. Why would men of power, wealth and political influence care about the limits of a little blueprint for freedom? The rise of the industrialist titans and money-brokers of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries proved that. It is rumored that a cabal of those titans had President McKinley assassinated. It is not a rumor that J.P. Morgan II loaned $100 million to the federal government because it had run out of money. (Imagine a government running out of money. How can that be?) You can buy a lot of political influence with $100 million. What is $100 million in the early 20th Century worth today ….. $100 Billion, maybe?

The second thing the Founding Fathers didn’t count on was the industrial revolution that pulled people from the rural areas of America into big cities. Rural people are generally self-reliant, self-sufficient and quite independent. If they can’t buy their food, they at least can grow it. But people who live in big cities, without employment, have no choice but to rely on government for their subsistence. In point of fact, people in big cities, where most Progressives live (100% Democrats), become hopelessly dependent on government, especially when large industries go broke and the jobs dry up. Unfortunately, poor, dependent, unemployed people are easily manipulated by government and will enthusiastically vote for their manipulators.

The third thing the Founding Fathers were not able to weave into the U.S. Constitution was a check and balance against citizen apathy. If the citizens don’t care, those in power can do just about anything they want when no one is paying attention, and, ladies and gentlemen, those in power are doing just about anything they want to do today with increased militarization of law enforcement. It is called a police state and America has arrived(i.e., Randy Weaver, Ruby Ridge, ID; the Branch Dividian, Waco, TX; Cliven Bundy, Clark County, NV; and many more).

Herein lie the three necessary ingredients for the rise to power of the Progressives (100% Democrats) in the early 20th Century. First, the industrialist titans grossly exploited the people in their factories. The people, quite naturally, turned to the unions and the government to counter the titans’ power. Out of that confrontation came riots, violence and upheaval and a heavier intrusion by government into people’s lives. Perhaps this wasn’t a bad thing, but don’t think for one minute that the Progressives (100% Democrats) didn’t see that as an opportunity to increase their political power.

The titans moved to entrench their political power and lobbied for a private central bank that become the Federal Reserve under the 16th Amendment. To collateralize the loans the titans (central bankers) would make to government, they lobbied for a federal income tax to be the source of repayment for those loans and got it. The income tax also became law under the 16th Amendment, in direct violation of three other constitutional provisions that required all taxes to be apportioned. Thus, the income produced by every American worker, for his or her entire lifetime, was the source of repayment for the loans made by the Federal Reserve to the Government. In other words, each citizen, an involuntary borrower, has a lifetime obligation to pay for a loan or loans over which that citizen never signed. That, as we have stated before, is involuntary servitude.

Unfortunately, for American capitalism and freedom, it gets worse. The Progressives (100% Democrats), determined to consolidate their power, turned to monetary and other promises to the people from the public treasury in exchange for votes. What a brilliant strategy. This ploy especially works well with citizens who are apathetic, dependent on government, or just generally dumb. There are certain classes of society that are more susceptible to this dependency than other classes.

Then in the late 20′s and early 30′s came the Great Depression that many historians put directly at the feet of the Federal Reserve, and you have the makings of a perfect storm for Progressives (100% Democrats). FDR (a 100% Democrat) pounced on the Great Depression with a vengeance and he literally sucked dry the pride, self-reliance and independence of a very large segment of the American people with government promises. He bought off industry with subsidies. He bought off agriculture with subsidies and he bought off the people with even more subsidies. He then, to insure compliance with federal law, bought off the states with their own money. To do it, he threw the constitution out the window and badgered the legislative and judicial branches of government to get what he wanted. Some call FDR a hero. We call him the second dictator of a rapidly-declining America, where President Wilson was the first. Government has been buying off business, agriculture, the people and the states ever since, with disastrous results.

The Progressives (100% Democrats) over the last 100+ years got their way, and the statistics tell the whole story. Way too many Americans have been bought off by government promises in exchange for their votes and will not bite the hand that feeds them. The capital necessary for a robust economy has been sucked out of that economy to pay for those promises. The promises have been so many that the country is now in a financial death spiral and there are no political solutions to bring America back from the abyss. ObamaCare just poured more fuel on the financial fires, thereby securing our path straight to hell.

In the opening paragraph of the article, the author makes the following statement:

“Buried deep on the website of the U.S. Census Bureau is a number every American citizen, and especially those entrusted with public office, should know. It is 86,429,000. That is the number of Americans who in 2012 got up every morning and went to work — in the private sector — and did it week after week after week.” (This number represents only private sector jobs, not government jobs, which private sector jobs ultimately pay for.)

However, that paragraph, in and of itself, is not the whole picture. The rest of the story from the article goes like this:

“All told, including both the welfare recipients and the non-welfare beneficiaries, there were 151,014,000 who “received benefits from one or more programs” in the fourth quarter of 2011. Subtract the 3,212,000 veterans, who served their country in the most profound way possible, and that leaves 147,802,000 non-veteran benefit takers. The 147,802,000 non-veteran benefit takers outnumbered the 86,429,000 full-time private sector workers 1.7 to 1.”

The problem, and the reason why America’s path is unsustainable and unresolvable at the same time, is that those 147,802,000 people get to vote. If the 86,429,000 people get angry and lobby their Congressmen and Senators to stop this government-instituted grand theft and Ponzi scheme, they are outvoted by the 147,802,000. And guess what? The Progressives (100% Democrats) have known this would happen at the start of the 20th Century, over 100 years ago. It’s just another repeat of the history of socialism.

There is more than one way to change a Republic to an Empire, and you don’t have to use force to do it. You just have to manipulate the apathetic, weak and dumb masses to give up their freedom for 30 pieces of silver in exchange for a vote for the Progressives (100% Democrats), who brought this non-violent coup d’etat upon America and killed capitalism and freedom at the same time. Progressives (100% Democrats) have managed to kill all of the attributes of a free and generous nation, in a little over 100 years, and very few Americans are aware of it, or don’t care. Obama didn’t cause it. He is just the latest facilitator, complicit with all the other Progressives (100% Democrats).

The rise of the Progressives (100% Democrats) in America, the head-long rush to socialism, the growth of the mega, out-of-control bureaucracies and the implementation of radical environmentalism into law, has morphed America into a mirror image of Rome, with all of the potential tragic consequences.

Like all giant bureaucracies, Rome became inflexible and could not adapt to new ideas and new processes. It had built up a society that the government created by providing bread, wine and entertainment to the people for free, to keep the people fat, dumb and happy. All Rome could do to maintain the status quo and fulfill their promises to the people so they wouldn’t riot and preserve their own elite power structure was to regulate more and tax more, a self-fulfilling prophecy to destruction. Rome didn’t necessarily buy votes with the public treasury; they bought the perception of tranquility. If you don’t see the parallel between the Rome Republic (turned empire) and the American Republic turned socialist and eventually an empire, you just aren’t paying attention to the irrefutable facts. Once a government, conceived in liberty, starts buying votes, the Republic has no chance of survival as a free nation and will eventually morph into an oligarchy of the elite or an outright dictatorship, as did Rome after 500 years as a Republic. How far away is America from one of these freedom-ending scenarios?

Buy a vote – kill a Republic! It is a foregone conclusion. Buying votes with welfare was never authorized by the U.S. Constitution. It was imputed there by the oligarchs in government in each political cycle on America’s path to socialism. Socialism has never worked in all of human history, but you can’t tell that to a Progressive (100% Democrat).

The solution to this apparently unsolvable dilemma lies in the answer to the question, “Where is John Galt?” Those of you who have read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” will get it.

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NOTE: The following article represents the opinion of the author and is not necessarily shared by the owners, employees, representatives, or agents of the publisher.

- Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, “In Defense of Rural America,” is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners (NARLO) (http://www.narlo.org), a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State, an advocate and consultant for urban and rural landowners. He can be reached for comment at info@narlo.org.

How “climate change” is supposedly impacting New Mexico and other southwestern states because of ensuing drought and devastating wildfires!-Posted on Tea Party Command Center-ByJake Martinez-On February 10, 2014:

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